The healthcare industry has been facing the problem of interoperability for a long time. The exchange of information between hospitals and clinics has its significance. It helps in providing better care to patients. Exchanging patient information between healthcare institutes is very vital as it helps in knowing the condition of patients. This is important as it helps in providing the right treatment according to the medical condition. To eliminate the interoperability issue, you should follow HL7 standards.
Every hospital or clinic has its system of exchanging information inside its departments. This helps in sharing patient records inside the hospital or clinic. Doctors can provide treatment accordingly after seeing the medical history of patients. But the problem begins when the medical records need to be shared with another healthcare institute. Every hospital or clinic has its application through which they share patient records. But if a file goes to another system or application, the format or file version gets changed which causes problems to understand the document.
However, the use of the HL7 interface acts as a bridge and enables efficient and convenient data sharing. The use of technology in the healthcare industry is very essential these days. By using multiple healthcare applications, your hospital or clinic can not only handle medical billing but maintain patient records securely too. Therefore, you need to implement HL7 guidelines in your hospital’s applications to ensure the exchange of patient records safely.
HL7 Standards And the Use of Electronic Health Records
The use of paper forms in your hospital makes the overall processes slow. Moreover, your staff has to collect the information first and transcribe it into the systems. This is not only time-consuming but prone to errors as well. Plus, sharing physical records whether inside or outside the hospital is not secure. Furthermore, it not only takes time but money as well. You have to send them to the receiver through a courier service. However, the use of EMR is a far better option.
Enabling digital patient forms in your hospital can improve the workflow and enhance productivity as well. The primary concern of healthcare providers is to ensure that their patients are getting a good quality of care. By allowing them to provide their information on digital forms, you can enhance patient experience which can have a good impact on their health. By implementing HL7 standards or guidelines, you can not only provide digital patient forms to patients but exchange the information without any hassle.
So, are you ready to discover some of the great benefits of implementing HL7 guidelines in your hospital or clinic? Let’s just have a look below:
Automating the Workflow
With manual information collection processes, you can not improve the workflow. You have to provide forms to patients and collect them back too. After that, you have to transcribe them into systems. All this is time-consuming and prone to errors as well. This long wait is not good for the health of patients. So, you need to automate the workflow of your hospital with HL7 guidelines. HL7 enables the use of EMR which helps in enhancing the patient experience.
Easy Integration
As mentioned above, healthcare providers use different applications to share patient records. Well, these applications are only good for the inside sharing of files. By implementing health level seven standards, you can easily integrate with other systems as well. It allows you to handle large databases without missing anything. Although it is easy to integrate with other systems or applications still, only authorized persons can access it to see the patient records. So that they can retrieve information and provide better care to patients.
Improve Clinical Productivity
Patient records are required urgently when called upon. With manual processes, you can not keep up with the pace. This not only affects patient care but the productivity of your clinic or hospital as well. However, with HL7 guidelines, you can improve the productivity of your clinic or hospital. The use of electronic health records allows quicker and smoother information exchange. It helps in accessing patient records on time and providing treatment accordingly.
Eliminate Errors
Transcribing paper forms after collecting the information is prone to errors. However, the use of health level seven standards helps in eliminating these errors. It enables digital patient forms that are filled by patients and submitted directly to the database. This not only saves time but eliminates errors as well.
